Tag: Glinka

The Tschaikowsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio pays a visit to Austria this week with its long-time (since 1974!) music director Vladimir Fedoseyev. Of three concerts in Salzburg there is some program overlap, which I avoid by going to my subscription concert tonight, skipping tomorrow, but returning on Friday, and then I get to hear them in Vienna on Saturday with yet another set of works on the program. Tonight’s performance was definitely a concert of two halves: whimsical Glinka and Tschaikowsky before the break, and Schostakowitsch served raw after.

The Overture to Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila gave a spirited start to the Orchestra’s arrival in the Great Festival House. This fairy tale opera is mostly known only by this Overture, which is a shame – I did have a chance to see it once (at Moscow’s Novaya Opera) and wish opera houses would stage it more (not least because, in a fun performace such as the one I saw at the Novaya, children will get hooked on opera). But if we only get the overture, then Glinka’s music marks as good a place as anywhere to open several nights of Russian music.

Next came Tschaikowsky’s Second Piano Concerto. I am not sure I had been aware that he had written more than one (the famous one) until I showed up tonight and realized that the one in the program was number two! It’s perhaps not as memorable as his first, and might have used some editing (particularly the far-too-long first movement), but it was fun in its own way. The first movement certainly used every key on the keyboard (I was half expecting pianist Andrei Korobeinikov to run out of keys at both ends). While that movement did not contain exciting music, it did have intrigue. In the second movement, Tschaikowsky never quite figured out what sort of piece he was writing, switching among several, including various chamber combinations (not all of which even utilized a piano – the violin-cello duets were certainly special, then with strong continuo; the combinations involving piano and different winds also stood out). What would he have thought of next? Well, that would be the final movement, which exhibited the skill and coloration with which the composer had constructed his moody opera Yevgeny Onyegin, except without the depressants.

Korobeinikov’s treatment was flat (in a good way): this was not a flashy work (Tschaikowsky’s friend Nikolai Rubinstein, known for his excellent musicality but sober and contained technique, was supposed to have performed the premiere, however he died suddenly right before the concert and Sergey Taneyev took over, under the baton of Nikolai’s even more famous older brother Anton – the composer dedicated the concerto to Nicolai’s memory). Korobeinikov gave us a flashier (unidentified – UPDATE: subsequently identified as Rachmaninov‘s Piano Prelude #5 – I am not so familiar with solo piano reportary, as I am actually not a fan of the instrument) encore to show us he could do flash too (I hope so, since he’s performing Prokofiev’s absolutely nutso second piano concerto on Friday).

After the intermission, Fedoseyev led an almost restrained reading of Schostakowitsch’s Symphony #10. Begun in dark times, right after the end of the Second World War when Soviet Russia had defeated its one-time ally Nazi Germany and then people woke up and realized they still had to live in Soviet Russia. This performance was all gloom and doom, yet nevertheless quiet, passive, and even submissive – never bombastic (I’ve heard good bombastic interpretations of this symphony, too, but that was not Fedoseyev’s approach tonight). This interpretation worked, as it allowed the periodic harsh dissonance and jarring syncopations to jump off the stage, scraping at an open wound. By the time Schostakowitsch finished writing this symphony, Stalin had died, and the final movement tonight came across as an off-kilter dance on his grave – off kilter because, despite that evil man’s demise, the Soviet Union was still around and ultimately outlasted Schostakowitsch, who would never know freedom. For this work, this orchestra’s unmistakable Russian tone stood out – not always the most polished noises come out of the instruments, but the style is intentional and the sound authentically Russian.

A mock-Spanish piece livened up the mood as an encore (I think I’ve heard this orchestra play this encore before, although I never did figure out what it is – UPDATE: turns out to be the Spanish dance from Swan Lake) and sent us out maybe a little less-depressed into the snow.

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Sometimes tickets come available late for the subscription-only concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. I got one such ticket this afternoon, giving me a seat in the percussion section between the cymbals and the bass drum. No kidding. At least no Mahler was on the program, although my ears are still ringing a bit.

Semyon Bychkov took the podium for an all-Russian concert. The chronically-ill Mikhail Glinka spent a Summer in Vienna, where he came for medical advice and to take the cure in Baden. During his stay he met Johann Strauß (the father) and Joseph Lanner, who inspired him a few years later to try his hand at a waltz. In a sense, Bychkov brought the Waltz-Fantasie home by having the Philharmoniker (not only the world’s best orchestra, but the world’s best waltz orchestra), perform it.

Kirill Gerstein joined the orchestra for the second piano concerto of Dmitri Schostakowitsch. This is a tuneful work with a degree of charm, but written by Schostakowitsch during one of the many periods in his life when he was subject to artistic persecution. While recognizably music by Schostakowitsch, it is perhaps less daring than it should be. From my seat in the back of the orchestra, I also did not experience it as much of a concerto – the piano part seemed somewhat under-written and blended into the orchestral tones. Gerstein gave a long solo encore to demonstrate his agility (I could not hear his announcement of what he played – it was not a showy piece, instead rather melancholic, but it did allow him to demonstrate versatility).

After the intermission came Pyotr Tschaikowsky’s Symphony #6. Bychkov captured the composer’s depression. While the orchestra carried off a flawless performace, I did not get the sense that I learned anything new from this reading. However, I did learn some new things about cymbal technique.

Tonight’s concert by baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the Armenian Philharmonic was peculiar long before it started. Ostensibly part of the annual Yerevan Perspectives Music Festival, it appeared neither on the Festival’s published program nor on the Armenian Philharmonic’s schedule. But when posters went up around town, tickets sold out. Only cheap seats were available when I got to the box office, and in retrospect that was a good thing because this concert was not worth more than a 10-dollar ticket. After the concert sold out (or over-sold out, since some people were literally sitting on every available stair in the aisles and standing to fill every other empty space), black market tickets were going for well above face value.

A list of composers was published on the concert flier, so presumably they knew what they were performing in advance. But to tell us what was being performed, they hired a master of ceremonies. Sometimes he was too slow to announce the next selection. Sometimes Hvorostovsky beat him too it. Sometimes we just had to guess. A program would have been a nicer idea.

The first half of the program contained a mix of arias and orchestral overtures. Hvorostovsky is clearly more comfortable in the Russian repertory, and Aleko’s lament from Rachmaninov’s Aleko and an aria from Rubinstein’s Demon remain signature works, combining loving sensitivity with drama. His singing style may be less suited for German and Italian repertory, at least for tonight’s selections, since his voice can sound somewhat bitter and not subtle in those languages, and this undermined the portrayal in Wolfram’s Ode to the Evening Star from Wagner’s Tannhäuser and in another aria that sounded (I’ll guess) like it came from Bellini’s Puritani. It worked better for Escamillo’s bullfighting aria from Bizet’s Carmen, as Hvorostovsky ostentatiously made his appearance in the middle of the orchestral introduction, and then gave a swashbuckling portrayal quite appropriate for the scene (this may also have worked better since French is already an ugly enough language, and a biting Russian baritone will not make that worse).

The orchestra mostly kept pace, under the baton of the Armenian-American conductor Constantine Orbelian, but Orbelian does not have the same control that the orchestra’s music director Eduard Topchjan has. Topchjan is perhaps the only one to make this orchestra sound good. Tonight, they reverted down several levels, missing notes and entrances, and failing to allow natural phrasing in the music to flow, making the performance somewhat disjointed. When Hvorostovsky sang, they thankfully stayed in the background (with some glaring exceptions). When performing the overtures to Verdi’s Nabucco, Glinka’s Ruslan i Lyudmila, Bizet’s Carmen, they just served to keep the audience entertained while Hvorostovsky took a breather. Likewise for a Khachaturian dance in the concert’s second half.

When I worked in Russia, someone told me that someone famous (unfortunately, I forget who) once quipped that if the Russians have ever done anything cultured, they learned it from the Jews, the Armenians, or the Georgians. The second half of the concert seemed designed to prove that no matter how well they have been trained, Russians remain tasteless underneath. I suppose Hvorostovsky selects his own programs, so I will blame him. His selections in the second half converted the hall into a Russian nightclub, but with the accompaniment scored for full orchestra to ensure it could become as tacky as possible. He sang a string of Russian-language songs by Russian and Armenian composers (according to the flier: Pakhmutova, Dunayevsky, Babzhanian, and Konstanin Orbelian – the last being the uncle of the conductor and who came on stage personally to accompany Hvorostovsky and the orchestra on a miked piano, and whose music is as cheesy as it was when I last suffered through it in 2011). Hvorostovsky used a microphone for these songs (he correctly did not use one in the first half of the program). Why someone with his voice needed amplification is a mystery, but it just made the sound more seedy and defeated the point of paying to hear him sing live. His gold chain glittered under his half-unbuttoned shiny black shirt.

Audience reaction was mixed. Some – presumably the Russified Armenians, of whom there are far too many – clearly loved it and applauded madly. But a sizable minority had expressions of disgust on their faces similar to mine. After politely sitting through the scheduled part of the concert, and sitting on our hands during the applause, we waited to see what Hvorostovsky would do for encores. He began with two differently-scored versions of the Russian nightclub favorite “Dark Eyes.” When it became clear that the encores would continue in the same manner, lots of us got up and walked out.

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A terrifically charming production of Glinka’s Ruslan i Lyudmila at the Novaya this evening.

This opera is rarely performed and is mostly known because of its overture (which in this production, for some reason, was not performed before the opera but rather came at the very end of the opera as the conclusion to the celebration at the end of the final act). However, if the opera were more often produced like the version I saw tonight, it would become a staple in the repertory.

This was the sort of production you bring kids to (as a lot of people did this evening) to make them interested in opera. It was a ton of fun, staged as though it were out of a children’s picture-book, and musically excellent too. It is a fairy tale, so the staging captured that mood, with bright colors, fanciful creatures, and over-acting. It was also the first opera I have seen at the Novaya Opera where I understood the staging (although not realistic, but it is a fairy tale, so what is realism? – importantly, the director used the staging to support the story). Sergey Lisenko on the podium, Vladimir Kudashev and Yelena Terentyeva in the title roles. Truly delightful.

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My second concert of the day in the Musikverein featured the Tonkünstler-Orchester under Mikhail Jurowski.

The concert opened with Glinka‘s Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila, followed by Prokofiev‘s Second Piano Concerto, with Alexander Markovich, an obese Russian-born Israeli as soloist (because of his stomach, he can’t actually sit near the piano; fortunately his arms reach). I did not know this concerto at all – never heard it before – and I dislike pianos generally. But this was a find. The piece is truly bizarre. Markovich is a very charismatic performer with a twinkle in his eye. I have no idea how the orchestra could manage staying together given the way the music jumps about, but Jurowski kept everything working. Really a stunning performance, and they all (soloist, conductor, orchestra) deserved the thunderous applause.

After the intermission came a very good Dvořák 8th Symphony. The Tonkünstler (which seemed enthusiastic and happy to be on stage) actually sounded better than the last two Symphoniker concerts I attened, which made me wonder even more what is going on with the Symphoniker right now.